1. It Will save You Money

Raising your own veggies is a lot less expensive than buying them each week at the grocery store or farmer’s market. If you’re on a budget, then one of the most compelling reasons to plant a vegetable garden is all about cost savings. But wait, there’s more! Read on…

2. Home-grown Veggies Taste Better

Remember that tasty tomato I mentioned in the intro? It’s only a small representative of the truly delicious veggies you’ll grow in your garden. Sure, they might be smaller, and somewhat less uniform-looking than the Franken-veggies you’ll find at the market, but they’ll taste incredible. You’ll never go back!

3. You’ll Be Safer

If you’re planting and tending your own vegetable garden, you’ll be in control of whether you use natural or nasty chemical fertilizers and pesticides… and whether you’ll choose to water your veggies with e. Coli-tainted runoff water, or water from your rain barrels. In short, you’ll be a lot less likely to eat literally poisonous veggies.

4. It’s Relaxing

Scores of studies have shown that tending a vegetable garden is an effective stress reliever, one that’s low-cost and one that actually puts food on the table. Sure, yoga’s great, too… but why not do yoga in your own freshly-weeded garden sanctuary? Amazing!

5. It’s Educational

I never knew how little I knew about gardening and even just food in general until I planted my own vegetable garden… not to mention how much I’ve been able to teach my children about it. Who knew growing a vegetable garden would be so educational?

6. You’ll Meet New People

My local parks and rec department hosts two seedling swaps a year, and I’ve made a whole new set of friends there. They’re a great resource when I have gardening questions, and besides, who couldn’t use another set of kind-hearted, generous friends to add to their circle?

7. The Dirty Fingernails Are a Badge of Honor

I do have one warning: planting, weeding, and harvesting your own vegetable garden does have one risk. Your manicure will be jeopardized. There is just no way to get rid of every speck of dirt from under your nails, or every green smudge from your skin. But I wear these as a badge of honor, as a sign to other gardeners that I am, truly, one of them… manicure chipped, fingernails dirty, green stains on my thumbs. Oh yes.

Safe, tasty, fresh veggies? Yes please! That’s my favorite reason for keeping a veggie garden each year, but which of these reasons is most important to you? Or is there another reason you love to plant your own garden? Do tell!